Norton ready to bring powerful leg to Orange special teams

Syracuse, NY – If you have dreams of being a Division I college kicker, it doesn’t hurt if your father is friends with the special teams coach of a local pro football team.

Of course you have to have the talent to begin with.

Ryan Norton of Long Island’s Garden City, who made a verbal commitment to kick at Syracuse University on Sunday, said his dad’s friendship with Mike Westhoff of the New York Jets has been a boost for his kicking career.

Westhoff has helped Norton with his kicking, and he also hooked the Garden City High School senior up with former NFL kicker Louie Aguiar, now a well-known instructor.

Norton credits some of that instruction with helping him develop a leg that can routinely pound kickoffs into opposing end zones.

“I can also do directional kicking,” said the 5-foot-11, 185-pound Norton who hopes to be the Orange’s regular kickoff specialist as a freshman next fall.

SU offered Norton a scholarship last month, and he accepted on Sunday following a weekend visit to the campus.

“I just liked it a lot,” Norton said of the visit.

While he handled all of the kicking chores at Garden City, Norton said the plan right now is for him to compete for the kickoff duties at SU, then line up behind junior-to-be Ross Krautman as the next Orange place-kicker.

“They’re not really worried about the (place) kicking right now, because Ross is so good and accurate,” Norton said.

The feeling is that Norton's ability to knock kickoffs into the end zone, something the Orange special teams haven't been able to do consistently the past few seasons, will free Krautman to concentrate on his place kicking. Krautman has been one of the top Big East place-kickers his first two seasons.

But Norton's recruiting video also shows him knocking home field goals from 55 yards out, so there's a possibility that he could be called on to attempt long field goals as well.

Norton, who is also a lacrosse midfielder on the powerful Garden City lacrosse team, said he had previously been offered scholarships by Georgia Tech and Illinois.

Georgia Tech withdrew its offer, and Illinois, after a coaching change, decided to pursue a punter, he said.

Norton also had conversations with, but no offers from, recruiters from ACC schools Miami, Virginia and North Carolina, so he might just have something to prove in a couple of years when the Orange moves to that conference.

Norton, a second-team all-state Class A kicker this year, said he had 47 or 48 kickoffs end up as touchbacks last season for Garden City, which finished 11-1.